UPDATED FEB. 24

The Spartans battled it out tonight at Wessman Arena in the WIAA Section 1 final against the Hudson Raiders for a seat in the upcoming Wisconsin State Tournament. Both the Spartans and Raiders fought until the end, but the Raiders took home the win after scoring a sudden death goal 4:19 into the second overtime period of the night.

The Raiders had a significant shot advantage in the game, quickly outshooting the Spartans 15-5 in the first, but were not able to get a shot past senior goaltender Dayton Podvin. Superior was not able to sneak anything by Hudson senior goaltender Alex Cohen. The game became very physical quickly, with Superior drawing two penalties in the last minutes of the period.

“(Podvin) played great, Podi kept us in the game in the first period. Without him I think it would have been a lot worse,” Superior head coach Jason Kalin said.

Hudson continued their shooting downpour in the second, putting 11 more shots on net to Superior’s 9, but had nothing on the scoreboard to show for it. At 13:21 in the second, senior Grant Sorensen put a back-door goal behind Cohen, but the score was pulled due to a crease violation. The game intensified, with a Hudson slashing penalty resulting in a power-play goal for Superior from senior Cayden Laurvick, assisted by Sorensen and senior Max Curtis 6:24 into the second.

“The boys’ energy was good,” Laurvick said. “The game was crazy, I thought we were gonna get a couple more scores in the beginning.”

Superior saw their momentum slow after a Hudson goal from Bennett Schrank 8:24 into the third, which tied the game 1-1. Hudson outshot Superior 10-2 in the final regulation period. Neither team was able to find the back of the net to ice the game, so the two teams entered overtime deadlocked in a defensive battle.

Both teams hashed it out in an intense eight-minute overtime period, but no one was able to score, which lead into the second overtime.

4:19 into the 17-minute second overtime period, a Hudson goal was scored by senior Cole Danielson, ending the season for Superior and propelling Hudson to the State Tournament by a score of 2-1.

“We had a really tough year. You know, there’s a lot of expectations on them right away and we weren’t fulfilling them. For them to get here, I think it solidifies that they are good hockey players,” Hudson head coach Brooks Lockwood said. “We beat a really good hockey team tonight.”

Cohen finished with 20 saves on the night for the Raiders, while Podvin finished with 39. Hudson almost doubled the amount of shots on goal, with 41 compared to 21 from Superior.

“I wish we had a couple plays back, we just wanted one more bus trip. We have been itching for the chance at State our entire hockey career as Spartans,” Podvin said. “We came up short. Things were just not working for us, we tried to play simple hockey but we kept over complicating a simple game.”

Superior finishes with a record of 18-7. Hudson improves to 15-9-1 and will compete for their third consecutive state championship next week.